KUALA LUMPUR, July 15 — Minister of International Trade and Industry, Datuk Darell Leiking today said that Malaysia had approved RM29.3 billion in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the first quarter of 2019 alone, which is an increase of 73.6 per cent.

Darell was responding to Bera MP Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri bin Yaakob, who asked to state the FDI inflow into in the country for the first six months of 2019, and the details.

"For the first quarter of 2019, between January and March, the total investment which was approved was RM53.9 billion, and of this amount, Domestic Direct Investment (DDI) was RM24.6 billion, which is 45.6 per cent of the entire investment sum approved.

"On your question YB Bera, on the FDI which was approved, it’s RM29.3 billion, or 54.4 per cent of the total investment amount approved.

"The total FDI amount which was approved, shows an improvement of 73.4 per cent, compared to the RM16.9 billion (in investment which was approved) for the same period in 2018,” Darell told the Dewan Rakyat.

Darell said that despite the challenging global economic outlook, coupled with the US-China trade war, Malaysia was not spared the negative impact.

However, he said that his ministry and its agencies had ramped up efforts to promote Malaysia’s potentials to foreign nations, to continue keeping it an attractive investment destination.

Darell said that RM20.2 billion and RM8.1 billion of the FDI went to manufacturing and services sector respectively, with RM1 billion to main industries, commodities and others.